Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged Sunday to continue to work together, despite Livni's call last week for Olmert to resign over the Winograd report.

Following their first meeting since then, Livni stressed that the two talked "only about foreign affairs of the State of Israel."

The Prime Minister's Office, for its part, said in a statement Sunday that Olmert and Livni "agreed to continue working together as part of the government headed by Ehud Olmert."

The two also agreed to continue working on the promotion of the diplomatic process.

Peres: I won't work to oust PM

Vice Premier Shimon Peres would not back any plots to oust Olmert from office, he recently told Kadima Knesset members. He would not, however, rule out being prime minister himself.

Peres stressed the government must be preserved and the ministers ought to concentrate on mending its flaws - and stop trying to oust Olmert.

Peres' adviser Yoram Dori said the vice premier was now busy stabilizing the government and correcting the malfunctions that the Winograd report addressed.

Senior Kadima sources said Saturday that the initiative to replace Olmert with Peres could gain momentum if it transpires that Olmert's survival efforts have failed, and if opponents of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Kadima join the initiative. Livni's opponents, as well as people from Labor, Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu, will try to prevent her from being chosen as Olmert's replacement.

According to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth, Meretz MK Yossi Beilin met Peres last Thursday in an attempt to persuade him to replace Olmert and to prevent early elections.

Meanwhile, Olmert managed to stabilize his position within his party and the coalition, after the revolt against him failed; the only Kadima figures calling for his resignation are Livni, MK Avigdor Yitzhaki and MK Marina Solodkin.

Olmert said Saturday that he does not intend to fire Livni at this stage, but his aides continue to talk about her cowardice, subversiveness and lies. Olmert is maintaining Livni's dismissal as a future option.

Labor leadership contender former prime minister Ehud Barak on Saturday refrained from commenting on whether Labor should remain part of Ehud Olmert's government. Labor's central committee is to convene next week to discuss and vote on the issue.

Olmert and his associates are worried by the expanding momentum in Labor to quit the government before the party primaries on May 28, or if there is a second round in mid-June, as this may cause Olmert's coalition to topple.

Olmert is trying to bolster the coalition by obtaining the support of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party.

A number of Labor MKs are expected to abstain in the no-confidence vote in the Knesset this week, or to absent themselves from the plenum.

Olmert's associates said that, in any case, the coalition has a very large majority.

Barak's associates say he will make his position known when the time is right. Unlike other candidates, Barak is in no hurry to issue statements and this is an indication of his experience, they say.

Barak is expected to try to prevent Labor from leaving the coalition, as this would plunge the political system into a tailspin of early elections, while Barak needs more time to rehabilitate his position to become an acceptable candidate for defense minister. He will therefore refrain from undertaking not to be part of Olmert's government.

National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told activists in the Arab community on Saturday "Labor's quitting the government means elections or a radical right-wing government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu."

"Labor must act responsibly and think a few steps ahead. Is this the alternative we want? To chain the feet of the new leader of our party? After all, we could always decide to quit ..." he said.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz, under pressure to resign over the scathing Second Lebanon War inquiry, said Saturday he intended to give up his post only after his Labor Party held its primaries on May 28.

"I announced more than a month ago that I intend, immediately after the Labor Party primaries, to carry out far-reaching changes," Peretz said on Channel 2 television.

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Since I'm not a politician, I can't imagine how both Livni and Olmert communicate each other effectively after Livni's public announcement that she encourage him to resign. Imagine if Collin Powell demanded Bush to resign after he lied about Iraq's war and while he still stayed in OFFICE as Secretary of State at that time. Well, probably POWELL wasn't (a) LIVNI, he is a gentleman. LIVNI is clearly an opportunist.

the heart of the people, not just the leadership. I don't even think the people's "leadership" is leading the people. The people are out of control. And until the so called "leadership" can show otherwise, Israel needs to proceed with this in mind. Which means their approach should be to the people and not the non-exsistant leadership.

This shows that Olmert is a master of psychology but not national security. Islamist-Jihadist rockets are still raining and terrorizing Sderot and the Negev. Its seems that the leadership is impotent in protecting Israel from external aggressions. It is time the people of Israel make a determination on who their government should be. Leaders who cannot perform should step aside rather than wait for impeachment or a NO Confidence vote. Strong and capable leaders as determined by the people should form the new government that can strengthen Israel's deterrence against her enemies.

It was great to see 150 thousand israelis demonsrate against olmert in Tel Aviv. However, did these people stop to consider what would happen if Olmert were to relinquish power? The demonstration should have been against Olmert, Peretz, Livni, Peres and Barak. Thinking about it, even though i hate him, I would actually prefer Olmert over the others

interesting, how the left always tries to portray the right as facsit & undemocratic. we see the real truth now! the left is undemocratic!! it fears losing its CONTROL, so it continues its undemocratic ways to maintain KAOS!!!

"bibi"?
lol...don't be a fool.
he's the WORST thing israel can do!
things have changed in case you haven't noticed. the world is paying close attention...
and someone like him will be israel's undoing in the world's view...
even big brother might start having second thoughts...
lol...which are already starting to brew
in case it's gotten by you....
bibi will sway world opinion so far away from israel's dominion that it will lose face even here in the united states!
hmmmm...but on second thought...
i think you may be right...
"bibi" is what israel needs...
because the world is primed...
and someone like "bibi" is perfect...
to open the world's eyes...

So this is where Israel ends up.
The last 'old man' of the founding generation is a big wimp unwilling to save the nation from the incompetents that grew to shrubhood in the shadow of the founding generation.
Here is a man who could step in for a few years to give a third generation of Israeli politicians to come to grips with the problems of the 21st century instead of the ghosts of the past.
And he is - as now I must accept he always was - too much a wimp to tackle the job.
Israel finds it in a world which is not the world of 1948-1973.
It is not the world of 1973-2003.
It is the 21st century.
And everything that Israel has attempted since 1981 has failed and turned into ashes.
There must be Israelis who can cope with the post War of Independence, post Yom Kippur War and, post Second Lebanon War world.
The nation needs them now, the last member of the Post War of Independence generation has failed them as miserabely as the last post Yom Kippur war politicians have.

What is it with response #1, comparing the late,
deceased Saddam Hussein, with Amir Peretz. Amir is Israeli, a Jew of Moroccan descent. You cannot compare him to a Sunni Moslem of a different generation. To say the least. But it seems anything goes, because of the trauma of this Lebanon war imposed upon us by our enemies.

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